CHERUB : Square One
by JK-Muchamore
Summary: James Adams is less than a year away from leaving CHERUB, and this is the tale of Tom Falcon, formerly Chaplin. In this first installment, Tom undertakes basic training, and a recruitment mission with a difference...
1. ORPHAN

**1 : ORPHAN**

For the first 10 years of my life, I was just an ordinary boy. I went to school, played football, did my homework, played football, went to sleep, played football... like I said - completely normal. Well, normal by orphan standards anyway. That's right. When I was just three weeks old, I was left outside the Greater Manchester Home for Boys, with nothing but a blanket and a card reading: _His Mother's name is Gail, his Father's name Robert - surname Chaplin_. four months later, I was christened Tom Robert Chaplin, Robert after my father.

The orphanage was decent; in fact it was more than decent. The chairman of the home had some good connections with Manchester United football club, and so we were well looked after. I had many friends at the orphanage, but when I was four, a girl named Jemima moved into the girl's home next door who became my best friend, even though I could only see her at school. I am only going to say three more things about my time in the Orphanage: the funniest moment, the saddest moment and the happiest moment. Here they are:

Funniest : April fool's day, 2007. I took advantage of the fact that my cabin-mate Elliot was a late sleeper. At about 7:05 AM, I woke up and set all the clocks in the room to 11:05. Then I hid behind the doorway, while Asher and Jack wrote a quick note, and placed it by his bed. When he woke up, there was no-one there, just the note. It said something like _Tried to wake you - didn't work. Have all gone out - left you with Simon _(Simon was a cook at the home). Now, when Elliot got worried, he started to stutter, and when he got scared, he cried. Just when it looked like he was about to burst into tears, we jumped out shouting: "APRIL FOOLS!" Then we had a massive pillow fight that went on till it really _was_ 11:05.

Saddest: July 17th, 2008. At Great M, as we nicknamed the orphanage, kids aren't sent to public schools, but tutored in classes on eight in a small building between the girls' home and the boys'. I was in a class with Jemima, and we both shared an interest and good ability for science; though where I hated english and she loved it, I found maths easy and enjoyed it while she found it boring. Despite our differences, the similarities were there too, and we had been friends ever since Jemima had moved to Great M. So, you can guess I was very distraught when I found out she'd been fostered. I was happy for her, but I lost my best friend that day. She took me to see her new family, and we shared a fierce hug. I cried a lot that day...

Happiest: October 28th, 2008. My best birthday ever. Not much to Say about that day. Just that this was the day when I found family - to be precise, an uncle.


	2. EMOTION

**2 : EMOTION**

Why did I give the chapter that name? Because Right then, as my uncle drove towards my new home in his flash Audi R8, I was the happiest I'd ever been. When we got there, he grabbed a suitcase from inside the car, threw it in the boot with my things and drove off again.  
"Where are we going?" I asked.  
"To Spain!" He replied.

I was very excited then, and even more happy (if indeed that were possible). Like most orphans, I'd never been abroad, and the prospect was daunting - even a little scary. But I was very excited, and when when we boarded the plane I was ready to burst. I had a 5-year children's passport from the orphanage, as all the boys had once they turned 7, and I felt proud to be using it for the first time.

The first holiday was brilliant, and far from the last. Once we got back from Spain, I was enrolled in a private school, not far from our glorious home. My Uncle could afford all this as he was the Stadium Manager at St. James' Park, home of Newcastle United FC, and as soon as Christmas came, we zoomed off to Italy for some Skiing and Sight-seeing. This new life was all I'd ever wished for and more!

We went to the USA in the Easter holidays, and stayed with a friend of my uncle's in China for for weeks during the summer! During the stay outside Beijing, I was taught Mandarin by my uncle's friend - I was almost fluent by the end of the stay. We were just planning a half-term trip to Switzerland for climbing, canyoning and more skiing - when my uncle died.

Now this may all be a bit fast-paced for all you readers, but all I'm trying to do is speed it up so we get the sad bit over with, and move on to the excitement as soon as possible, but for me this was too fast-paced to bare, and how I wished someone could skip the sad bit for _me_, so I wouldn't have to enjoy all that pain. I named this chapter EMOTION, not just because of the happy buts that happened with my uncle, but the sadness of when he died. Ah well. I suppose I'd better fill you in with at least _some_ of the details.

My uncle had ben called onto the roof of the football stadium to inspect a fault, and fallen off. I was later told that he hit every stair rail on the way down, and landed near his favourite place - the corner flag. I was to be sent back to the orphanage in Manchester where i had been brought up, but I was allowed to keep all the things I had been given by my uncle. The worst part though, was not that I would not go abroad again, or that I had to go back into care. The worst part was that it was my birthday.


	3. DIFFERENT

**3 : DIFFERENT**

I thought about my life so far as I was driven back to Great M. So far, I'd had a good time in life, and in the past year it had been brilliant - the best experience of my life. Now all that was in ruins, my family was now all gone, and I again had to face childhood in care. I didn't mind that, but everything had happened too suddenly.

When I did get back to the home Elliot was on a trial fostering programme and Asher was spending all his time with a girlfriend from the next door home. So I spent all my time in my room (which I now had for myself) venting my anger and reliving my time with my uncle in all those exotic places. However all that did was make me angrier. Eventually I took to skulking round the corridors of Great M. I hadn't been brought back to school, which I found weird, but I wasn't complaining. The only problem was, with nothing else to do, I would pick on little kids. I'd taken Karate classes since I was 8 with a couple of kids from Great M. I had continued with a better instructor when I lived with my uncle, so I was now close to black belt.

But my taking my anger out on young orphans didn't go unnoticed, and I was constantly in an office or something for one fight or another. I became an outcast. The only person who would talk to me was Simon, and he would ask me about the places I went to with my uncle. This was better than no company at all, but he was very pushy and I felt pressurised to answer. So as you can guess, I was somewhat glad when I woke up one morning and everything was different.

*******

My first thought when I woke up was - oh, I'm naked. The second was - hang on, my room doesn't have a white ceiling. The rest just flowed from there.

I Looked out the window and saw a large garden with kids in different-coloured t-shirts and army combat trousers walking around, sitting on benches etc. I assumed this was another home. It looked good, from what I could see (Running track, lots of space etc.) but I wish someone had told me about it. A set of clothes were spread on the end of the bed. An orange t-shirt emblazoned with a baby angel on a globe and the initials CHERUB. I thought this was weird, and made a note to find out what they stood for as soon as possible.

As I pulled on the olive combats and army-style boots, I noticed a note on the shelf by the door saying: 'Lift to ground floor - ask at reception'. _**Note** - __I later found out that at this point, Zara saw me through a surveillance camera in the corridor and said "This guy's gonna be good - the only two Cherubs to ever have seen that note are Lauren Adams and Dave Moss." _

As I walked into the reception, The lady at the desk said,  
"The chairwoman will see you now. Just through there." She pointed and I followed. It was a plush room with a comfy sofa at one end and a desk and leather chair at the other. The chairwoman sat in an armchair between the two.  
"Ah, Tom," She said, "please sit." Surprised that she knew my name, I sat down. "I'm Zara Asker, Chairwoman. What do you think of my facility?" I didn't know what to say.  
"Good. I wish Great M was like this." She chuckled at that.  
"I bet you do, but this is no ordinary care home. Would you like to know why you're here?" I nodded. "You have been chosen to be part of CHERUB, a secret branch of MI5 that uses kids as secret agents. You were chosen by your cook, Simon for your intelligence and physical health. Both way above average."  
"You want ME to be a secret agent?" It couldn't be worse than my current life.  
"That's right," she said, "We only use orphans because parents would cause SUCH havoc. You have the right to refuse, of course."

Refuse? How was Zara event considering this. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get away from my life of confusion and turmoil. I would not turn it down.  
I said eagerly, "Sign me up."


	4. TRIAL

**4 : TRIAL**

"Sorry, Tom, You'll have to forgive me," Zara said as she drove the golf buggy round campus. "Since your recruitment happened so quickly, we haven't got all your files yet. How are your languages?"  
"I had French lessons for two years at the home, and I learned a little Mandarin Chinese from my uncle's friend." When I mentioned my uncle, she sagged a little in her seat, and when I asked her what had happened, she gave me the terrible news.  
"There's no easy way to tell you this Tom," the chairwoman said, choosing her words carefully. "But Your uncle... he wasn't really your uncle. He was an MI5 agent sent to take you away and train you."

I was shocked. Everything about my uncle now seemed different - seemed... wrong. "So the whole thing was a fake?" I asked, "The holidays, the family, the death-"  
"No. The death was real. We lost a good agent that day. But he didn't fall, like you were told - he was pushed. We don't know why."  
"But I lost an uncle, a good life!"  
"I understand you're angry, but it was necessary to send him in. We knew you'd make a great CHERUB agent, but you didn't have enough experience. Just look at it this way - if not for him, you wouldn't be here."

So with THAT in my mind, I had to face my first test. All Cherubs recruited straight into the senior agent section have to take this five-test-trial, to assess their ability. Test one - Fight a Karate and Judo black-belt in a series of submissions, first to five wins. I did quite well. My female opponent wasn't having a good day, and I got 4 straight wins. But then I let my confidence over take me, and I was 5-4 down in the end. Bitterly disappointed, I walked off to the next test.

It was a mixture of Maths, logic and verbal questions, so I could answer most of them. The test was an hour and a half long, so I finished with time to spare. As I re-checked my answers, I thought of how Simon the cook had been spying on me all this time. I realised then that he had been asking me about the holidays to relay information back to CHERUB. It was so well done it was almost cruel.

After lunch (which was full of people saying "can't talk to orange" and spaghetti bolognese) I had test 3. I stared at the chicken in the cage. "See the chicken?" Zara asked. I nodded."Do you like eating chicken?" again I nodded. "Would you like to kill this chicken so you can eat it?" Finally I spoke.  
"No way. I don't kill thing on purpose!"  
"Why not? if you want to eat the chicken, you must kill it. It happens everyday." I was struggling for an answer.  
" I EAT chicken, but I'm not the one killing it!"  
"Are you refusing to eat the chicken?"  
"YES," I said, relieved.  
"OK," said Zara, finally giving in. "Now for test 4"

Test four was simple. I had to jump into the deep end of the biggest indoor pool on Campus and rescue a brick from the bottom of the pool. EASY.

Test five probably pushed me to the limit physically, though. "It's OK," shouted Zara from way below. "Not far now!" I'd had to endure a whole network of these beams, platforms and jumps getting higher and higher for what seemed an eternity. There were just two jumps remaining. I took as much of a run-up as I could, and leaped to the net beam. The last one looked harder, and it was. I must have stood there for a full two minutes before I plucked up the courage to jump. It was now just a death-defying leap to the ground almost 40 feet below between me and a life here at CHERUB. Suddenly a thought came into my mind: _Well, they're not going to kill me, are they? _It was then a whirl of colour and wind, with branches lashing at my face. Then I landed on a huge crash mat and looked up into Zara's smiling face.

"You did well." We were back in Zara's office. "Although you let your confidence get ahead of you in the Karate, you scored brilliantly in the test paper. You performed poorly in the chicken test, as although you refused to kill the chicken, it wasn't on what I would call strong grounds. Low pass. As for the swimming - record time! And the height and agility test - what can I say? I thought you'd give up towards the end, but you kept going just like a good Cherub would. If you want to join, you're in. We're low on agents and we need people like you."  
"No offense, but that question's irrelevant. This life looks better than I could ever imagine."

"It is." Zara smiled, and shook my hand. "Welcome to CHERUB"


	5. CAMPUS

**5 : CAMPUS**

After the test day, I stayed overnight with Simon (or George, as his real name turned out to be) in a hotel near Campus. The next day was my "uncle"'s funeral, and then the will-reading. It turned out he'd given me all the money he'd earned while he was working as stadium manager at St. James' Park in his will. It was a big sum, and George told me CHERUB would keep it safe for me.

Gorge had told everyone back at Great M the funeral and will-reading were on different days, so we were covered for the trial day. I also had a new back story that because of my recent anger outbreaks, I was being transferred to another home where they had better counselling facilities. This was all a cover-up for me going to CHERUB, but I couldn't help asking George questions about Campus life. I asked him what the t-shirt colours meant, what kind of missions there were, but he was always careful not to be too detailed, lest he blow our cover.

I left three days later, travelling with George - sorry, Simon. It turns out he's a CHREUB cook, but the broke a finger, so he wasn't able to stand the constant Campus cooking needs. But, to put him to good use, Zara sent him to Great M, where the cooking would be easier, and he could look out for potential agents. It was a long journey, and I'm sure there was a sedative in the coke Gorge gave me, because the next thing I knew after we turned out of Manchester, was George shaking me awake.

"Zara wants to see you in 15 minutes." He handed me a CHERUB uniform with a light blue t-shirt, and pointed to an open door. "Go in there, shower to wake yourself up, then get into your uniform and over to the Chairwoman's office pronto."

*******

"Good to see you, Tom, I Hope you had a good journey. Have you thought of a new name?" Zara had asked me to think of a new identity for security purposes. I could keep my first name though, as it would take ages to get used to a new first name.  
"Yeah. Tom James Falcon"  
"Good. May I ask why?"  
"I'm keeping my first name, and I've always liked the name TJ (Tom James). And I don't want to be named after a father who dumped me outside an orphanage."  
"And Falcon?"  
"Oh, I just like birds, I guess - and falcons are the best."  
"Well, that's all sorted, then. Tom Robert Chaplin no longer exists." She handed me a door key - a bedroom door to be precise. "Welcome to CHERUB, Tom James Falcon."

My new room was AWESOME. That's the only word to describe it. Turns out it had belonged to some legendary agent called James Adams and had just been given a complete renovation. Fridge, TV, computer, en suite bathroom, all I could wish for.

I was just unpacking, when a knock came at my door.  
"Yeah?" A boy, about the same height as me, wearing faded jeans and a designer top walked in.  
"Hi. I'm Craig. Craig Archer, and this is my twin sister, Vicky." A girl came into view, slightly shorter than craig, with curly brown hair. "You just moved in?"  
"Yup. I'm Tom, by the way. Tom Falcon. You couldn't help me pack could you?"

For the rest of the afternoon, Craig and Vicky helped me to unpack and told me about Campus and the life of a Cherub. Lessons are taught in ability groups, not age, and - since no-one has any parents, Cherubs make friends really easily. It sounded like a good life. Until my timetable was slipped under my door.


	6. BASIC

**6 : BASIC**

Charlie Thorn, my handler at CHERUB looked at me across the desk. Charlie was a trainee on Campus, and was my handler as part of her trial period, under the watchful eye of Meryl Spencer.  
"So, what have you done so far to prepare for basic training?" She asked. My reply was automatic.  
"English Catch-Up, Mandarin Finishing lessons, Fitness, Judo lessons, and Check-ups at the surgery. All part of my timetable."  
"Well Tom, I have all the information and paperwork here. I called you up to tell you you are now eligible for basic training. How do you feel?"  
"OK, I suppose. I'll just have to grin and bear it." It was all I could say. Charlie Laughed.  
"It won't be _that _bad!"

It was.

**Day 1:** (December 1st 2009) My alarm went off at 5 o'clock that morning, as I was expected at the training compound (on the other side of Campus) by half past. As I pulled on my sleeveless blue training t-shirt, I heated up a microwave burrito for breakfast. Quick as I could, I got into the lift, gulping down a can of Coke as it took me to the ground floor. I jogged to the compound, arriving at 25 past 5. I was quite pleased.

As I entered the building, I saw three others were already there. I was number four of six, and I slid into place next to Vicky, my training partner - number 3. Craig was there as well, number one, waiting for his partner to arrive. Also there was a Hispanic boy who I knew vaguely called Daniel, standing next to me as number 5. A few minutes later, both Adams came in. Number six came in first, who we all called Speedy, as he was on the running track _all_ the time. Then came number two, just plain Adam, an all-round nice guy.

"All right. Now we're all here, let's get started." Head Instructor Kazakov came into view, with his junior instructors, Pike and Speaks right behind him. "This is Basic Training. The toughest time of your life. If you abide by my rules, you won't get hurt as much. If you disobey me..." To demonstrate, Pike held up three planks of wood piled on top of each other. Kazakov punched clean thorough all three. The instructors began to tell us about the timetable for training, and what would happen during the 1-hundred-day course. During the explanation, Speedy muttered something like "yeah right." and spent the next five minutes on his head, his legs being held up by Speaks. After the brief, it was out for a run of the assault course.

For those of you who don't know, the CHERUB assault course runs like this: Cherubs run up a very steep hill, generally with a pack on their back, and perform an exercise (push-ups, crunches, shuttle runs etc.). Then they travel along beams hung from trees above the pond full of weeds and nettles. After the beams, it's the height test, and then a sprint through a muddy tunnel. Then, a run along a rocky plain, before a long swim to the finish. It's VERY tiring with a capital V. With a partner it's easier, because you can cover each others' weaknesses, but it's still tough.

But, as Speaks would say: _This is tough but Cherubs are tougher_.

**Day 5: **Language lessons began. We were all split into groups learning different languages, according to our ethnicity - Russian for me and Craig - Greek for Daniel, Adam and Vicky; Arabic for Speedy. He thought it was unfair, learning a language on his own no-one took any notice. He thinks everything is unfair.

**Note** - Although Vicky and Craig are siblings, and so have the same ethnicity, we can't have two people from the same pair learning the same language (Me and Vicky).

**Day 25: **Christmas day, and we were stuck outside in the freezing cold doing Karate. Vicky was OK, but not very confident, so she kept making mistakes. To avoid punishment from Kazakov, I tried to teach her some easier, more effective moves which would make her look more competent. In the end she got five laps around the compound, even though I tried to convince Kazakov she was doing her best.  
"This programme is designed to test Cherubs to their limit. If they're not punished, they won't get the experience they need."

**Day 32: **After a night sleeping outside without sheets (A classic Pike treatment), we were woken by Speedy yelling at an angry Kazakov. The trainee used a lot of words I won't print because I don't want to go higher than a K+ rating.  
"You ****** Russian with your ****** training compound!"  
"I'm not Russian, I'm a bloody Ukrainian," was the reply. Speedy then made a big show of walking out of the compound. Kazakov began to count down. "Five... Four... Three... Two... One.." Then in came Speedy, crying his eyes out and begging to be let back in.

**Day 50: **Halfway there. It had only been fifty days, but it felt like a lifetime.


	7. SAHARA

**7 : SAHARA**

**Day 52: **It rained all day, and I got six laps for 'not pulling my weight' in survival training. After the third lap, I was ready to give up. I rested my head on the concrete pillar beside the compound exit. I battled with my mind and conscience - the way out was so close... But then I heard a voice: "No, Tom!" I turned and saw Vicky, staring me straight in the eye. With that one look, the mantra _this is tough but Cherubs are tougher _came into my head. Then I headed back to my laps amongst cheers from my fellow trainees.

**Day 75: **Nothing much happened that day, just something Kazakov said in morning announcements.  
"Today, for most of you, is your Seventy-fifth day of basic training. Three quarters of the way there! Although, if someone had been a little more PERSEVERING, this may not have to be there one hundred and twenty-fifth day!" Here he glared at Daniel. He was one yea older than the rest of us, and had flunked training first time. I think this outburst was meant to scare is, but all it did was make us more determined.

**Day 80: **I picked up an ankle injury while running along the rocky path on the assault course. I went to matron, but I started to get worried - if you have an injury for three or more days, you fail Basic. For **days 10, 81 **and half of **82**, I didn't have the strength to go back, but (thank goodness) I could finally run near the end of **day 82**. I was relieved, as were the rest of the team, but I still got laps the next day...

**Day 83: **My punishment laps were nearly over, when Kazakov sat on a whoopee cushion placed by Vicky, just to wind him up. Unfortunately, Kazakov caught us both and subjected us to his harshest punishment - one lap of the assault course - naked. We managed it OK, but we got really muddy. Craig gave up his shower to me, and persuaded Adam to do the same for Vicky. We were really grateful, but that's what I mean about training - we all pull together to get past everything they throw at us.

**Day 94: **"Right soon-to-be Cherubs," that was the great thing about Pike, he always believed in us. "You will soon be traveling to the Sahara desert to start your 5-day survival training. This part of the programme is designed to test your resilience, and grace under pressure. Good luck."

* * *

**Day 95: **Vicky and i got up from our drop-off, and studied the briefs in our packs. Mine was in Russian, Vicky's in Greek. They both read the same thing, so we both knew our first challenge was to travel twenty Kilometers on foot through open desert to the first checkpoint in six hours. Sounded easy enough, but it was scorching hot and, since walking pace is about 3 km/h, we had to jog part of the way, accounting for rest stops as well. It was scorching hot and was only bound to get hotter, so we hid behind a sand bluff, and sorted out stuff to take. Sun cream and a change of clothes were obvious, and we took one of the two _New Light Bibles_, as we remembered from survival lessons that they could be good for starting a fire - plus, we needed toilet paper.

"Change time," said Vicky, as we reached the bluff that marked the half-way point. It had been an uneventful few hours, but thanks to that, and our regular rest pattern, we were ahead of schedule. The walk was doing nothing but tiring us out, to ease us into the 5-day exercise. We just couldn't wait to get to the checkpoint. When we did (20 minutes before deadline!), we pitched our tent in a personal 17-minute record. The tent was sweltering at first - it was thermally insulated, because deserts get really cold at night. We read our briefs for the next day, and turned in just before the sun went down.

**Day 96 - 97: ** this was a huge 2-day challenge, which started off assembling a desert 4x4 quad bike from the pieces using instructions only I could read (Mandarin). I drove, while Vicky directed us over two-hundred or so kilometers of dry plain, to a place which we would attempt to break into, in order to sleep there overnight. It turned out there wasn't much security, just a few primitive motion sensors. Each team was in the same building, but it had been designed so we wouldn't meet each other on the way. Kazakov gave us a live feed on the mission when we got to our sleeping quarters.  
"As you know, Operatives 1, 2 and 5 have bonded together to form a team of 3. Operative 5 [talking about daniel] is suffering wth asthma, but his team have the correct medication. Tomorrow all five of you will face a challenge before the next task. Now get some rest. Kazakov out!"

When we woke up the next morning, a previously locked door was open, and we walked through it into a courtyard, where the others were already standing. Kazakov's voice came over a loud speaker system. "Welcome to the maze. You have one hour, or you have failed training." a doorway opened, and we stepped into the maze. Following the rules of mission training, Adam an I scaled a wall, using grooves as footholds, and surveyed the area. We saw that the exit wasn't that far away, but the twists and turns would account for most of the trouble. Craig led the team through the small but complicated maze, making sure we took regular surveys on our position. Thanks to his leadership we were out in no time, and got to the next challenge half an hour early.

**Day 97-98: **Finally, we had to travel to the next checkpoint on a camel, which was slow, but not tiring. As long as we kept on track, we would make it - which we did, just. Then, we camped in the desert again, before the helicopter arrived to take us back to England.

Our last challenge was as follows: We were given our grey shirts (the colour for qualified CHERUB agents), but sealed in a package. The only opening device lay thirty Kilometers away, and we had seven and a half hours to get there. Plus we were tired out from the rest of training. But this was tough, but us cherubs were tougher, and as Adam said, it was 99, 1 to go! And, by sheer determination, I think, we made it with four minutes to spare. We were Cherubs at last.


	8. QUALIFIED

**8 : QUALIFIED**

It was a relief that basic training was over. We now had a week to recuperate which meant hanging around Campus, cruising the shops nearby, and generally getting to one another. We'd been through so much together, and most of us had never had a conversation. I'd noticed that, at meal times, agents always sat at tables with the same people every day. I also noticed that, without thinking, we'd done it too. Our 'gang' was made up of all the agents from my Basic course (except Speedy - no one saw him ever again after training) and a guy called Matt who had qualified five months earlier. He told us a lot about missions.  
"There are three main categories of missions," he told us. "Low, medium and high risk. Low risk is for recruitment missions, recons and security checks. Medium risk missions can be a little more dangerous, but with close supervision from a mission controller. High risk are often to do with drugs or illegal stuff like that. The mission controller may not be able to contact you very easily."

Speaking of missions, the day after lessons started again, Vicky and Craig were sent off on a mission together, set to last about two weeks. Adam and Daniel were both sent on missions, leaving just me and Matt around Campus. We had a good time and stuff, but without my really good friends, I wanted nothing more than to be on a mission as well. Homework wasn't letting up, but I was able to keep up, partly because of my lack of friends to do stuff with.

Eventually, in my third qualified week, Adam came back, and we just about managed a _long_ game of bowling and a couple of meals in the Campus canteen before he as sent on another mission. So, as you can guess, I was feeling quite depressed; my only source of consolation was that, when the others got back, they would have A LOT of school work to catch up on.

Then, just as I had given up all hope of getting a mission soon, something came up out of the blue. I'd just come back from the boy's gym (still not renovated, despite numerous requests), and I saw I had a message on my room phone. I pressed playback, and I heard this:  
"Hi Tom, it's Chloe Blake here, the mission controller? Come to the mission preparation building at two o'clock today. I've got a mission for you."


	9. BRIEF

**9 : BRIEF**

_No file detected _said the machine as I put my eye to it. _If you have an appointment, please press the intercom button located to the right of door_. I sighed, and reached to press the intercom. "Hello? State your name please." came a voice.  
"Hi, I'm Falcon - Tom Falcon"  
"Tom Falcon... Yes. You have an appointment with Chloe Blake?"  
"Yes."  
"Please come through." There was a whirring noise, as an adhesive strip came out of the machine. Attached was a sticker. I put it on, and waked through the door.

"Hi Tom" said Chloe as she walked through the corridor, carrying a stack of paper. "I'll just photocopy these, and I'll be right with you. Ben will take your iris scan while you wait." She disappeared into a room, an I turned to a black man with 'Benjamin' written on his badge. He told me to put my chin on a panel while the machine recorded my iris patterns. I saw a light cross my eyes, and heard a few beeping noises, and then it was finished.  
"Come on, Tom. I'm done now." Chloe reappeared, and I followed her down the corridor and into her office.

"Sorry about the wait, Tom. I would have given you a mission straight away, but the Boss told all the Mission Control staff to wait to give you the RIGHT type of mission. And, apparently, this one fits the description."

_** CLASSIFIED **  
MISSION BRIEF FOR TOM FALCON  
WARNING - THIS FILE IS FITTED WITH A RADIO FREQUENCY TAG - DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IT FROM THE MISSION CONTROL UNIT  
DO NOT PHOTOCOPY OR MAKE NOTES _

_Ralph House_

_Located just north of Brixton, London, Ralph House is a reputable care home for children. Brixton is documented for having a 'bad' neighbourhood, so to some it is surprising this reputation is maintained. Ralph house is split up into the Main building (where lessons are taught etc.) and six smaller Boarding houses, each of a different colour. The order from left to right is Purple, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green and Blue. These boarding houses are part of an independence scheme run by Ralph House - each morning the 'Boarders' will get up, and make their own breakfast. This happens also with dinnertime, and lunch during weekends. 'A member of staff is always on hand to supervise, and provide help and support where it is needed' says the brochure_.

_The Targets_

_There has been belief for some time that this above average care home would generate potential CHERUB agents, but it has not happened until now. CHERUB scouts report that two children at this home possess the requirements to succeed under CHERUB conditions.  
They are: Laura and Arizona (Azza) Ross, 11 and 8 years old, respectively. They were left at Ralph house by their parents, as it would be cheaper to carry out their plans of moving to Ibiza. The case went to court in 2005, a year after the incident, but the parents won, as the judge ruled the action was completely legal.  
Laura particularly has shown promise in academic areas, and Arizona in the physical area. They are both above average in all areas, but this analysis can help CHERUB if they ever need to chose one above the other for a mission; the recruitment mission can help confirm this observation. The two targets have shown good behaviour records in school and the Home, but their police files tell a different story. They have both been taken to a police station, Arizona without official punishment (he is not yet of that age), but Laura received a formal caution. The charge was for attempting to steal a mobile phone from a _3 _store. _

_The Mission_

_The task of Tom Falcon is to 'become' a resident of Ralph House, and make friends with the two targets. Special arrangements have been and are being made to ensure maximum chances of positive contact. For example, the agent will need to have similar interests, and have a believable, if not pity-inspiring, background story. The ultimate goal of the mission is, obviously, to find out if the targets are deemed worthy, and - if so - to recruit them to the CHERUB programme. This will be done mainly via telephone calls to the mission controller from the agent, and daily reports from Tom. These will be relayed to Campus and assessed. CHERUB has hit a 'low point' in agents, now just over 250, so the success of this mission is crucial. _

_THE CHERUB ETHICS COMITEE ACCEPTED THIS MISSION WITHOUT RESERVATION.  
This mission, although only a recruitment, has been classified MEDIUM RISK, because of the fact it takes place in a recently rough area of London. However, with proper instruction, even an inexperienced agent should be able to cope, with a mission controller within walking distance. _


	10. APARTMENT

**10 : APARTMENT**

"All set?" Chloe asked me, as I got into one of the CHERUB pool cars.  
"I think so. Bit nervous, though."  
Chloe nodded, like she knew what I meant. "Pre-mission nerves are always the worst before the debut - especially when it's a solo. But don't worry, you'll be fine once we get started. Right, time to test you on your background story." A guard gave us the nod and we pulled out of Campus. "Your name is?"  
"Thomas Jacob Fielder," I said, having learnt my cover story by heart. Chloe had a back-up copy, just in case.  
"OK, good. And you are at Ralph House why exactly?"  
I knew the answer straight away. "I lived with my Mum and Dad in a flat in Manchester, but it was one-bedroom, so we moved to the north of London. The move upset me, and this led to arguing between Mum and Dad. One day, Mum just up and left us. When I was nine, my Dad received a phone call from my Mum, telling him where she was, and he went bounding off to find her. To cut down on expenses, he left me at home, telling me he would be back soon. When he wasn't, I called the police and they put me in care. During my time at the other care home, called Birch Tree Lane, I was severely traumatised, so I have been moved to Ralph House, where-"  
"Where they have better counseling facilities, exactly. Good, I'm very pleased with how you've got on with that. The fact you are originally from Manchester covers the Northern accent and the rubbish football team taste [she winked at me], and the heartbroken dad leaving you on your own is a convincer that you need care and attention. I theory, you're all set, but we'll have to wait do try it in practice..."

We arrived at the apartment at about 1 o'clock. It was literally a road away from Ralph House. There were two bedrooms, one for her, and one for me if I ever needed to stay over. However, I didn't unpack, as I would be staying over at Ralph house. The people at the apartment; only one parson knew bout the CHERUB mission. "One has to know," Chloe had told me. "It makes the transition easier and more easy to explain. Also, the insider will receive reports from the CHERUB agent if the controller has to go back to Campus for any reason." The rest of the staff only had my cover file and Chloe's cover Name - Christine Talbot; she would be acting as my social worker. My record stated that I had received a formal caution, yet another part of the mission fabricated to ensure I made friends with the target.

Chloe told me she had already been in here to stock up, so we wouldn't starve when we arrived. And we certainly didn't starve. Chloe cooked us a huge lunch of home-made lasagna. "When Zara was a mission controller - yes, she was once - she would always do chips and fish fingers. I always liked to go the extra mile." And it DID taste lovely.


	11. RALPH

**11 : RALPH**

It really was impressive. As we turned the corner passed the apartment, I took in the sheer size of the place, and noticed how it stood out from the buildings either side of it (an ancient greengrocers and shabby bungalow). Compared to the typical brixton street all around, it was perfection in cleanliness. We crossed the street with its crawling, smoking traffic, and began to walk up to the front gate. A tall, smartly-dressed lady came up to us when we reached it.

"Hello!" She said enthusiastically, grabbing Chloe's hand and shaking vigorously. She had one of those annoying nasal voices, as if she was speaking while holding her nose. "Emily-Jane Smythe. I'm Executive Head Care Worker here at Ralph House; of course, a care home as good as us doesn't _really _need an Exec Head, but we can't be too careful, now can we? Not here in Brixton with all these gangs about, eh?" She said all this very quickly, and all the time with a broad (yet undeniably forced) grin on her face.  
"Er... Christine Talbot. I'm Tom's social-"  
"Tom's Social worker, yes." She cut in. "OK, then. If you'd both like to step this way, I'll show you around." She swivelled smoothly, and led us toward the building at a brisk pace.  
"She's not the one who... knows about this is she?" I asked Chloe.  
"No," came the whispered reply. "I'm sure Zara would agree she's not exactly the most likely person to keep quiet about an operation like this." We both sniggered quietly, but Smythe heard us and turned round. She didn't want to seem rude in front of 'Christine', so she said curtly, "Anything wrong?" She glared at me.  
"No, no." Said chloe quickly, "It's a 'you had to be there' thing." With a dismissive sniff, Smythe turned and continued her brisk march inside the building.

"Welcome to Ralph House." We were standing in a clean-smelling, wooden-floored corridor. "This is the main building, where schooling and recreational activities take place. The games rooms are located to your right, and the science lab to your left." Given that it had been set up in a rough area, the care home was doing very well. Its glowing reputation would be impressive in any area, but it stood out among the drab community centres of Brixton. That was why, as Emily-Jane told us over coffee in her office, "people flock from all over London to drop their kids here!" She meant it in a joking way, but the thought of parents willingly handing over their children into care for no reason made me feel uneasy.  
"Well, this place certainly seems a more than reasonable choice for Tom. Better than some of the other dumps we've seen, eh, Tom?" Chloe beamed. She didn't bother to wait for my answer, but this was common with care workers - making decisions for the children they looked after. I was on a mission anyway, and we hadn't really looked anywhere else. "Look, I've got a meeting in like five minutes, so can I leave Tom with you? He'll be in such good hands here. I love it!" As chloe stood up and shook Smythe's hand, the Executive's forced grin came again.  
"Delightful I'm sure!"


	12. TARGETS

**12 : TARGETS**

After Chloe left, Emily-Jane had me sit down in the reception while she 'dealt with the official bit'. I looked at the pile of the well-thumbed magazines, obviously not replaced very often, and started to flick through a year-old Nintendo Magazine, full of old, overrated reviews until Emily-Jane came out, the forced smile stretching sickly over her features. "Right," she said brightly. "Let's show you your boarding house."

The impressive main building skilfully hid the childishly colourful landscape behind from the graffiti artists so common in that area of London. In stark contrast with the brick of the main building, five coloured house-like stone houses, each painted in a solid bright colour, red, orange, yellow, green and blue from left to right. In some ways it was nice to see some colour, especially against the surrounding red brick and grey slabs; but in other ways it seemed as forced as the Executive's smile, almost patronising. She led me up to the green house, its lime-coloured walls cheerfully grimacing as we walked. "The green house is usually for newcomers, but as we're a bit full, you'll be sharing the board with two others." I tried to look surprised, and it must have worked, because she laughed: "Don't worry, you'll have your own bedroom. I know it's frightening, moving into a new house [_new life, more like, _I thought, _have a heart will you?_], but you'll soon get used to it, and Laura and Azza are really friendly. Oh, speak of the little devils! Arizona, how many times? Take those muddy shoes off!"

I turned where she was looking, and saw two figures heading towards us through a door at the rear of the house. The smaller figure, presumably Arizona, stopped with a groan and began to pull off his trainers. As the other figure emerged from the kitchen, I saw it was laura, my older target. She was about my height, with a slight build, and good-looking features. "I'm Laura," she said brightly, in a thick cockney accent. "And this is my kid brother, Arizona."  
"Call me Azza," he said calmly. Now they stood next to each other, I could see the family resemblance, but only just. Azza was quite short, but his stocky build made him look quite tough for his age. He was the kind of person you can imagine having cauliflower ears and a swollen nose by their early 20s. His accent was Cockney, but less strong than his sister's. "And you are?" I was about to reply when Emily-Jane cut in.  
"This is Tom Fielder, Azza. He'll be taking Isaac Samuels' old room. I've got to dash, so perhaps you could show him round the house?"  
"I Suppo-"  
"Great." She turned to me. "If there's anything you want to know, ask Laura or Azza, and if they don't know, look out for one of us. Bye!" The door slammed shut behind her, and all three of us breathed a long sigh.  
"Thank goodness for that," said Laura, giving me an encouraging smile. "Right, your tour. This is the lounge." She gestured to the room we were in. "We spend most of our free time outside or in the main building, but the lounge is always open. If you want to go in a different house's lounge, you gotta ask permission first." She turned abruptly, and walked in the direction She had come in from, followed by her brother.  
"This here's the lounge," he announced. "The house parents try and encourage us to do our own cooking, but they handle all the heavy stuff." There was a long pause, as if they were waiting for my questions. "You seen the main building?" I nodded slowly.  
"Right then," said Laura, "up to your room!"


	13. ROOMS

**13 : ROOMS**

Azza bounded up the stairs like a madman, taking three at a time, obviously eager to be the one to show me my room. Laura raised her eyes as if to say _little brothers!_, before following me up at a more reasonable pace. "Do you want me to take your suitcase?" She asked kindly.**  
**"No I'm fine, thanks...still good...actually could you?" I felt really stupid, but she just laughed and picked up the other end, and we carried it together, taking the steps landing was small, with a wooden floor, shining from the many shoes that had crossed it. As I looked round, I saw one of the four doors led to a bathroom, but the other three were closed, and Azza had disappeared. Laura, however, was unfazed, and walked up to the door nearest us, calling to her brother: "Azza, get out here!" Giggling uncontrollably, the eight-year-old opened the door and stumbled out of what I assumed (rightly) was my room.

In we stepped, and I remember being quite surprised at its size, having seen the house from the outside and the landing. It was clean and smelled of air freshener; the bed was in one corner, parallel with a desk while a wardrobe sat against the wall opposite the window.  
"This is your room," said Azza, excitedly flinging open the wardrobe and releasing a putrid stench into the room.  
"Mothballs!" Yelled Laura, pinching her nose and rushing to open the biggest window pane, after which we all undertook the task of picking out all the mothballs from the wardrobe as well as wafting the smell out the window. Once the smell had receded, and the mothballs had been removed, we flopped on my bed and lay there, laughing with exhaustion. It reminded me a little of CHERUB Basic Training: when people have to pull together to achieve a task - whether they know each other or not - it brings them together. And though I felt I had grown closer to them, I couldn't tell them about CHERUB, but I did ask what the mothballs were for.  
"Isaac, the guy that had this room a while ago, left Ralph House at least a month ago," Azza began, and Laura finished off for him.  
"Emily-Jane and Nate must have put the mothballs in the wardrobe just to stop the room getting full of them. There were clothes in there for a while after he left, during the big cleanup we had about three weeks ago. You'll be glad you missed that."

"Do you think it's safe now?" I asked. we'd been lying on the bed swapping care-home anecdotes for half an hour.  
"For what" Azza was confused.  
"To put your clothes in the wardrobe?" Came a new voice. "I'll say it is. By the looks of things, you guys handled that really well."  
Laura sat up, smiling. "Thanks Nate." I sat up too, and saw a tall, clean-shaven man of about thirty walking towards the bed.  
"You must be Tom." He shook my hand. You going to unpack then," he asked in a soft northern accent, "or is this suitcase for decoration? I'm Nate, your house parent. I'm with you and Blue House, we each take care of two boards. When I'm not in a meeting with Jenny, I'll be around here or in my office, so whenever you need me, come and see me, OK?" He winked.  
"Thanks," I replied, bending down to unzip my suitcase.  
"Ugh!" Azza was shocked as he saw the Manchester United shirt. "You're a reds fan!"  
"Good choice," Nate seemed impressed.  
"You a manchester boy?"  
"Salford," he replied, "but I never liked City. Come on you two, let's leave Tom on his own to unpack. When you're finished come down to the main building, third room to the right." I nodded, and they left the room.

When I was sure they were gone, I put my clothes in the wardrobe, and reached into a secret compartment in my suitcase to reveal what looked like a staple gun. Checking to see no-one was looking, I picked it up and stepped out onto the landing. The door to my left bore a sign that read _Arizona, the Grand Canyon State. _This was the first important bit of my mission. trembling, I pushed the door open.  
BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP!  
A loud alarm sound erupted from somewhere and I panicked. Glancing down, I saw a circular pastic device with a flashing red light, picked it up and covered the speaker. The noise quietened, and i flipped the toy, turning the switch on the base to 'off'. More confident now, I stepped into the room, and with the 'staple gun' punched a listening device smaller than a drawing pin deep into Azza's bed, and the cushion on his desk chair. Laura's room was easier, and in addition to the one in the bed and cushion, I punched one into a weird pair of fuzzy dice, but hadn't the heart to put one into any of the cuddly toys that lined the windowsill.

Satisfied, I stepped onto the landing and peeled a round sticker-like object off its plastic backing. It was the work of a moment to administer this signal booster to the back of a painting on the wall. While I replaced the gun in my suitcase, I texted chloe to tell her I'd administered the bugs. On the way down to the main building, she replied:  
**_Turned the bugs on. Signal fine, Well done. U've Probly met Nate by now. U may have wrked it out, but he's the one who knows about CHERUB._**

I deleted the text immediately, turned the phone off, and walked up to the dining room for dinner.


	14. SPLASH

**14 : SPLASH**

"So, Tom. I suspect you know why I've brought you in here." Nate's face was serious as he leant forwards over his desk. "We can talk freely, some of your guys came over before you and soundproofed the door with some high-tech insulation. What I want to know is - are those two up for it?" According to most of the staff, I'd spent my first two weeks at Ralph House settling into the 'community'. Things like making friends, starting at the local school, getting to know my way around the buildings had all happened; but in reality, the first two weeks of my recruitment mission observing the behaviour, abilities and interests of my targets - Laura and Azza. I'd been meeting up with Chloe (disguised as counselling sessions with Christine Talbot, my social worker) to listen to the recordings picked up by the bugs I'd placed in the bedrooms, and we'd found out a lot of interesting things. For instance, Arizona seemed to cry quite a lot, asking Laura what their parents were like, having only been two-and-a-half when he was left with his sister at Ralph House. However, Chloe said this was normal for children of his age in this situation, as was the apparent bedwetting and his sister's fitful sleep.

Like I said, my part of the mission is to work out, even if they look strong on paper (Which my targets did), whether they have the right attitude, as well as the physical and mental health needed to be a CHERUB agent.  
"A good question," I asked, unfolding the notes I had taken down during the past fortnight. "Let's start with Azza. Although he looks tough on the outside, Azza is quite a sensitive person, and at times can appear vulnerable. Although I am told this is not out of the ordinary for kids in care, especially at Azza's age. On paper, as you know, he is top of his class in every assessed subject, although his situation and emotions have left him with a small group of close friends (as in three, counting me), who are supportive of his situation. The staff are aware of this, and two of the teachers and a teaching assistant have been on a short course on mentoring children of his age. According to some of the conversations we've heard through our bugs, his main concern is finding a life like the one he had previously with his parents."  
"Right," replied Nate. "So what you're saying is, he's physically fit, and looks great on paper, but..."  
"Well, apart from the insecurity thing, he's sorted, it's just that 'insecurity' fits into the 'mental health' category."  
"From what I've heard, one of your guys at Campus could rustle up a remedy for that in no time."  
"Look, It's not that simp-"  
"Tell you what, I've arranged fot you an me to meet Chloe for a final meeting before we initiate recruitment tomorrow, so how about we finalise the decision then?" I was about to reply but he cut me off. "Anyway, what about Laura?"  
"Laura's much the same, but she's learnt to be strong for her brother so she's overcome the insecure stage. Other than that, she'll be fine as long as she doesn't talk in her sleep." Nate smiled at me, stood up and tousled my hair.  
"Well done kid," he said, as if I was four. I was growing to dislike Nate a bit...

Later that Day...

"Right! Who's coming with me?" Emily-Jane yelled from the driveway. Every saturday, because kids went free, one of the staff took us all swimming, as part of our 'exercise regime', but all most of us did was muck around, doing the occasional width or two when the lifeguards were awake. It was early on a sunday morning, so we all mumbled 'me..!' and got in the van, rubbing our eyes. it was only a short drive, so under ten minutes later we were all doing laps of a 25-metre pool. CHERUB training had made this task easy for me, but I had to suppress my full ability avoid suspicion. Even so, I was by far the best swimmer, so the staff had entered me into the swimming section of the Inter-Home Sports day, taking place in a week. "And break!" called Emily-Jane after about fifteen minutes, and we all broke off into our friendship groups.

I can't remember how it happened exactly, it's all a bit of a blur. All I can remember is jumping out from underwater as Azza came by, on Laura's signal, and then Chaos. A look of pure terror dawned on Azza's face, and Laura went into overdrive. As Azza keeled over into the water, she caught him and started dragging him towards the side of the pool, muttering, "not again..." Before I knew it, I was in the Lesure Centre foyer with wet hair and damp clothes. Emily-Jane was in deep conversation with a staff member, a grim expression on both their faces. The other Ralph house van pulled up, and Nate got out, leading me into it.  
"Where are we going?" I asked.  
"We've got to meet Chloe, remember?" I filled with dread. Chloe wasn't gonna like this.


	15. DECISION

**15 : DECISION**

"What happened" I remember asking as Nate and I sat at the dining table in the apartment. Chloe replied from the kitchen area, as she poured tea into two mugs and got a bottle of lemonade out of the fridge.  
"When he was younger, Azza suffered from what's known as reflex anoxic seizures. Whenever he experienced fright or pain, he would stop breathing for a time. This is relatively easy to deal with if someone is there to help, but in the pool, the only two people ready to deal with it were Laura, who was in the pool, and Emily-Jane, who was some distance away."  
"But... It was Laura's idea! If she knew that would happen, why would she suggest doing something like that?"  
"You're right," Nate put in, "Laura should have known better. I can only presume that... Basically, it's only really common in children from 6 months to 2 years, and Azza had almost stopped doing it by his third birthday. This is the first time is four years since it happened, and he passed out. He's now at the A&E in the local surgery , but the doctor says he'll recover quickly."  
"It was a rash thing to do," said Chloe, turning to me and sitting down with the drinks. "It was in the brief we gave you on the targets, but it wasn't treated as a direct threat, so I reckon we can forgive you on the basis that this is your debut mission."

"Right," said Nate. "Now that's done with, what are we going to do about the recruitment stage of the mission?"  
"Woah, Hang on!" Chloe answered, taking charge. "First, we need to make sure that the siblings absolutely trust Tom. We'll take them onto Campus on Wednesday for their induction, but only if we know they trust him to get them to Campus when they go for real."  
"Laura trusts me. I know that, she's always walking around with me, and asking me things like 'what should I do when Azza does this' or 'what do you think Emily-Jane would say if I asked...'"  
Nate took over. "I've no doubt of that, but Azza is still a little wary, and this setback will probably have lessened both their trust in you." I resented him telling me how to do my job. Chloe was my superior, so I had to do what she told me, but Nate had no authority over me. I was about to tell him so, but stopped myself. I wasn't really in a position to go faulting others, and I didn't want to get in trouble with CHERUB staff on my first mission.

"Tell you what," chloe said brightly, "I'll arrange for Emily-Jane to take you into Brixton, so you guys can go around the Surrey Quays Centre. Hey, if you get desperate, you could use some of your CHERUB pocket money and buy Azza's trust. Hopefully, though you'll just have a good time. Seriously, the lack of parents at CHERUB is one of the reasons so many agents end up marrying each other. With no parents to love, the love extends in other directions. it happens in care homes too, just on a different scale. You'll be fine."


	16. ROAD

**16 : ROAD**

Swallowing, I knocked. I really felt like I'd messed up, despite what Chloe had said about First-Mission-Syndrome or whatever. "Come in" came Laura's vice from the other side of the door. I pushed it slowly, walking into her room. She was sitting, her back to me, in the middle of her bed, head bowed. I didn't know how to begin, but I didn't have to: luckily, Laura started for me. "I don't blame you, you know. Azza does, but I don't."  
"He has every right to be angry," I said, "It is my fault."  
"Yeah, but I started it, so It's mine too. I should have known better, but he hadn't done that for such a long time and I guess it just... slipped my mind." Her voice cracked and I knelt on the bed beside her I could see where tears had been rolling down her cheeks.  
"It's OK, though. He's gonna be alright." Gingerly, I tried putting my arm round her. I waited; she didn't resist.  
"I know that - it was just a shock, that's all."  
"Yeah, I'm sorry" I said. She put her head on my shoulder. "How can I make it up to Azza?" I asked, pretending to cast around for an idea. "My social worker says it's OK, but would Emily-Jane let us go into Brixton? I've got some money in the savings account left from when my parents ditched me, and I could buy him something. An X-box game or whatever."  
Laura laughed. "That's exactly the right thing for Azza. As long as we can make a day trip of it, and enough people want to come, we'll be allowed to go. Tomorrow afternoon's probably your best bet"  
"That's settled then. I'll go tell Azza."

Walking through the centre of Brixton felt a lot safer with a stab-proof-lined hoodie on. However, I hadn't done any training courses yet back at CHERUB Campus, let alone any involving urban warfare. Every other person seemed to be wearing a dark tracksuit and be giving you the evil eye. Brixton was that kind of place, and so the staff had to be very careful where they let us go. Many of the younger members of Ralph House stayed at home with one or two staff, while the rest organised the quite risky excursion to the Surrey Quays Centre.

When we reached Game-station, Azza and I went inside with a staff member, and were encouraged to be as quick as possible. Azza took longer than we expected choosing a game, but we got the game eventually, and carried on. Or at least, we would have done. As we exited the the shop, Azza proudly holding his Game-station carrier bag, I noticed a couple of 17-year-olds remove their hoods, eyeing the bag, and begin to walk towards the group. As we walked, so did they, following us round, so I knew I had to do something. Once we were back on the High Street, I said "Can I see the game?" To Azza , who handed over the game.

Quickly as possible, I turned down a side alley, looking for a place to shake off our tails.  
"Hey!" Azza shouted, obviously surprised at his game's sudden disappearance, and he and Laura followed me down the alley. _No!_ I thought desperately, _they can't follow me down here!_ The two youths had followed us down the alley, and another two appeared from the other end of the alley, and began to approach us from the other direction, pocketknives drawn. Grabbing Azza and Laura, I vaulted a low wall, and began to sprint across the car park on the other side. Laura could catch up, but Azza was only just out of Hospital and slowed pretty quickly.  
"Go and find Nate and Emily-Jane," I said urgently to Laura. Thankfully, she nodded without question, and ran off. The youths were fast catching up as I ran to get Azza. He ran into my arms, panting, as I lifted him onto my shoulders and cut into the nearest building, a small, sparse cafe. I walked through quickly, avoiding the staff, and the youths followed me, now running to catch up. I found the back door, and entered a yard full of bins... but no exit. I was cornered. We were cornered.


	17. DANGER

**17 : DANGER**

The two youths had finally caught up, and were rapidly closing us down. One of them pulled out a knife. Not a pocketknife like the other thugs had had earlier, but a fully-fledged switchblade. The other one grabbed Azza by the scruff of his neck, restraining him as he struggled, but he was too scared to scream. Silently he mouthed to me 'HELP!' I put a finger up: wait. The one with the knife turned his back on me to talk to Azza.  
"I'll have that game now," He said in a rough, heavily cockney accent, as he ripped the bag out of Azza's flailing arms. Unable to do much else, Azza balled up some saliva, and gobbed on the knife-holder's expensive-looking (probably stolen) G-Star jeans. This was a bad idea. I needed to do something, but I had to be really careful here. If I did anything wrong, Azza could be in grave danger. The guy Azza had spat on was rounding on him now. They seemed to have forgotten about me. Good, I needed the element of surprise. "You spit on me?" He was saying. "Do it again. Go on, I dare you." I saw Azza getting ready to hoik some more phlegm and knew I had to act soon. Now.

I threw my self at the hoodie with the knife, needing to disarm him as quickly as possible. Locking my arms round him, I pulled him backwards, tripping him over my right foot. When he stood up, he was facing me, and I swiftly put him into a simple, CHERUB-class arm lock, pulling his arm up behind him, and twisting his wrist, but still he didn't let go.  
"Drop the knife, and the game." I said to him quietly. The balde and game clattered to the floor, and I let him go to pick them up. Then I realised. During the fight with the one with the knife, the other hoodie had grabbed Azza and run off. Now I'd blown it. Pocketing the switchblade, I sprinted back through the cafe, hoping to spot which way they went. Back in the Car Park, I saw them bundling Azza into the back of a white van. This had gone way out of control. Before they could start the van, I ran up and punched the guy who was closing the back door straight in the jaw. The truck started to move, and Azza yelled in surprise. I yelled back "Quick, Azza! Come here!"  
"I can't!" All Azza seemed able to do was shrink back into the back of the compartment. Rolling my eyes, I leapt past the flapping doors and into the van compartment. the one I had punched had got up and began to close the door, but before he could, an arm appeared and hooked the guy round the temple.

Before anything else could happen, I grabbed Azza's hand, and raced out the van door and watched it drive away. Standing over the unconscious hoodie was... Laura. Standing with her was not Nate, not Emily-Jane, but Chloe.  
"Good work, Laura," She said. "You'll make a CHERUB agent yet."


	18. HOME

**18 : HOME**

April 30 2010 - Ralph House Sports day. Four weeks since my mission started, and six days after our incident with the two hoodies. The evening of that day had been full of Ralph House staff each throwing an individual fit at Laura, Azza and me. Between the "You could have been killed"s and "What were you thinking?"s, I was secretly pleased about how this had worked out. Not only had I bought back some of Azza's confidence, he now had total trust in me and his sister. Result!

Emily-Jane said she'd stop us from being in the sports day if it wasn't compulsory, and so signed us up with what she thought were the most gruelling events of the day. I was given 1500m track (on top of the 200m swim), Laura the 400m freestyle swimming, and Azza the 'hammer-throw' (really just a bit of foam on the end of a rope). Overall, it was a good day, a good opportunity to get to know the rest of the kids there - ironic, since that was the day Laura, Azza and I would leave for CHERUB Campus.

The sports day was held at the lesure centre where Azza had had that... incident. Not only had that put me in a bad position, but I'd been concerned that this apparent health problem would affect his chance of becoming a CHERUB agent, something Nate, Chloe and I discussed at length in our final meeting before we left.

* * *

"Before we start, let me be the first to say how well you've handled your first mission." Chloe stood up and shook my hand. "I know it wasn't the world's hardest mission, but you waited it out, and managed to stop the danger when it came unexpectedly. You've had no training in urban warfare, and it's surprising both how different that is from regular close-combat and how well you did against those thugs."  
"But now..." said Nate, pausing dramatically as he, in turn, shook my hand. "The targets. Well, potential agents now I suppose."  
"Yes." Chloe said professionally. "A few of the things we picked up from the listening devices sounded drastic, until we realised it was mostly in the past and they seem to have learnt to keep a brave face about it at least. The CHERUB geek squad I have analysed the clips of Laura sleeping, and there's no evidence of sleep-talking at all so she's home and dry."  
"What about Azza" I asked. This was the clincher.  
"I think the anoxic seizures are too much of a risk. From what I've been told, CHERUB agents need to be able to react quickly, so what if he gets a blow to the head and seizes up in the middle of an investigation? It could blow the whole operation."  
"Woah!" Once again, Nate was once again jumping the gun. "This more or less faded out five years ago, and you don't seem to be able to see past the worst-case scenario. We have ways of training Cherubs so-"  
"See? Told you!" Nate interrupted, turning on me.  
"I CANNOT BELIEVE," Chloe yelled, really losing it, "we got YOU, of ALL the people here, to sign the Official Secrets Act. You CONTRADICT everything me or any of my superiors say, not to mention poor Tom here!" She sat down, shaking. "I've a good mind to report you to the Chairman" Nate smirked quietly, because we all knew that was really all she could do. The only thing to do to stop him revealing secrets was to make him come and work on Campus, or put him on surveillance. Neither was preferable.

* * *

We all did our events against kids about our own age. I walked the 1500m (not literally, I mean it was easy.), coming first by about 20 seconds. The same was the story with both me an Laura in our respective swimming events, and Azza must have broken soe sort of record for the Hammer Throw, the way he flung that piece of foam right across the field, almost knocking a floodlight to the floor. Once we'd finished our events, we wouldn't be missed for the rest of the day, and we left it to Nate to come up with an excuse fro our absence until CHERUB came up with a permanent back story. I felt much better knowing my first mission had been more or less 100% successful, and safe in the knowledge that my two new friends and I would be going back to my favourite place on Earth, Home.


	19. EPILOGUE

**EPILOGUE**

**May 3, 2010**

LAURA and ARIZONA ROSS were declared eligible to become CHERUB agents, and Laura will start Basic training in five weeks. They changed their family name to BURTON, Arizona changing his first so it was Azza in full. They've settled in to their new life very well, making lots of friends among the agents and staff alike.

NATHANIEL (NATE) BOOT and EMILY-JANE SMYTHE continue to work at Ralph House, Brixton. Following Chloe's report to Zara and the MI5 chairman, Nate has been put under temporary surveillance by the British secret service.

CRAIG and VICKY ARCHER succeeded on their debut mission, which started as routine security check for a new Police Station, but they ended up uncovering a stash of Marijuana and the case was taken over by MI5. ADAM HUNT's first mission was also successful, but he has not yet returned from the one he started before my mission. When I returned to Campus, Craig and Vicky ware there, as was DANIEL MATTHIAS, but MATTHEW (MATT) WARREN was on a mission in Borneo.

CHLOE BLAKE commended me on my performance on the mission, but I was denied the Navy Shirt because of the 'outrage' getting a Navy shirt for a recruitment mission would cause.

I, TOM FALCON, am not that bothered. I'm just glad to have a mission under my belt and be back on CHERUB Campus - my new home.


	20. Timeline

**CHERUB: SQUARE 1 Timeline**

This took a year and a half to write, so some of the events got a little messes up. Here are the dates of the events, for all you pedants out there.

October 28 1999 - Tom Chaplin is born

October 28 2008 - Tom Finds out he has an uncle. (his 9th Birthday)

October 28 2009 - Tom's 'Uncle' dies. (his 10th Birthday)

November 1 2009 - Tom is inducted into CHERUB

December 1 2009 - Basic training begins

March 1 2010 - Basic training ends

March 21 2010 - Mission starts

April 31st 2010 - Mission ends


End file.
